The first thing was to grind off the uneven edge and get rid of the old paint. the cutting edge was ground using a bench-top metal grinder and a sanding belt. The shape of the edge is important – its not about having a very sharp edge, more about the angle of the edge, which is designed to split and open up the grain of the wood.

I also sanded down the handle and shaved the end to fit the axehead much better.

A slot was cut down the axe handle:

So that a thin wedge of hard wood can be knocked in to hold the axe head in place.

The wedge was hammered in as far as it could go, I probably needed to have a wider wedge:

To hold the wooden wedge in place a small metal wedge with barbs (called a ‘hammer wedge’) is used. I ordered mine from eBay.

Above: A selection of “hammer wedges”, and below: the size 2 wedge hammered into place:

Here is the finished axe with the handle finished with some Danish oil.

I wanted to engrave an inscription, so did that using the laser cutter at Nottingham Hackspace. It just fitted, when put at an angle. I should really have done this before fitting the axe head.

I used a scrap of wood to test the angle of the inscription and make sure it was all working OK, before doing the real thing.

Helena has an amazing large bus which she takes around various festivals during the summer months. She is used to using a battery based system but had got tired of lugging batteries from the van to get them charged. We installed a relatively small solar PV system to recharge the on-board leisure battery. … more

1.8 billion people around the world don’t have access to safe water and 2.4 billion lack access to adequate sanitation. Women and children spend more than 4 hours walking for water each day, and more than 840,000 people die each year from water-related diseases. Water For People is an international non-profit working across 9 countries … more

The Renewable Energy Society at Nottingham University is a student-led group who promote all forms of renewable energy. I was asked to provide an interactive workshop for this group and so offered my DIY solar phone charger activity. I provided all materials and the participants built a small phone charger with 2Wp of solar panels … more

This workshop was to build a small off-grid solar PV system. This included some hands-on training about solar energy and then, over a day, participants built their own small solar PV system comprising of a 10Wp solar panel, charge controller and battery. … more

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Re-Innovation

Renewable Energy Innovation specialise in electrical and electronic systems for renewable energy projects, mainly solar, wind and micro-hydro. We focus on renewable energy based stand-alone power supply systems (off-grid systems). This includes power and energy monitoring, battery charge control and wiring systems. Please contact us to talk about your project. If you require consultancy, design and implementation services for your renewable energy project please contact us.

Curious Electric Company

The Curious Electric Company specialise in creating electronic kits that help you monitor and measure the world around you, with clever data loggers and sensors you can take the pulse of your planet, collect and share data and knowledge with the world. Be informed - stay curious!

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Our sister business, Bespoke Gear have been building interactive pedal-power systems for over 15 years. Doing events and selling equipment to a wide variety of customers in that time we have learnt what works. We design and build high-quality, robust pedal-powered equipment and bespoke, interesting and interactive displays. If you are trying to promote environmental awareness, energy efficiency, getting people fit or just want something thats a bit different for your event then we might have something for you.